Why I Write About Liberal Talk Radio

Catching Fire?

Washington Post's Kurtz Adds To Liberal Talk Hype


Recently I've been asked by several people, including in a national radio interview last night, why I spend so much time attacking liberal talk radio.

Let me make it clear: if it can succeed on its own, then I have no dispute. After all, who can argue with success?

If there's an audience for it, far be it for me to fight the tide.

Countering the dishonesty, that's what motivates the Radio Equalizer. For over a year now, we've been subjected to slanted reports, puff pieces and softball interviews of Air America's air staffers, without any attempt at balance.

Liberal talk host Stephanie Miller

This mainstream media-endorsed spin campaign has continued unabated, even without ratings growth. Worse, in the radio industry we've been forced to endure even sleazier pro-Air America coverage in certain broadcast trades, likely due to the incredible amount of advertising purchased by liberal radio syndication outfits.

Conservatives were caught off guard, without proper knowledge of the broadcast industry, starting to believe liberal talk radio was actually working.

I began to notice, last year, that many on the right seemed increasingly baffled as to how they should discuss, if at all, Air America's presence.

With the help of major conservative writers such as Michelle Malkin, plus dozens of bloggers and news/opinion sites such as WorldNetDaily and Orbusmax, a surprising number of daily newspapers (in North Carolina, Chicago, L.A. and elsewhere) and trade publications (All Access, RadioDailyNews), we began to document liberal talk's troubles.

What makes this fight worth continuing? The need to counter pieces such as this one, by Howard Kurtz (reg. required) in the Washington Post.

An eagle-eyed Malkin noticed right away what was wrong: it suggests liberal talk's bright future is upon us, despite the reality of a poor ratings performance.

To the Radio Equalizer, it's especially sinister, because it appears to provide a balanced performance account of Stephanie Miller and other lib talkers, then fails to back up claims she is "catching fire" with listeners.

Kurtz initially mentions spotty performance, leading one to wonder if he will be providing a fair account of its showing, then gets sucked into the idea that liberal talk radio has a promising future, only now beginning to materialize.

Let's look at a few excerpts, followed by my responses:


Miller's presence here at a weekend radio conference sponsored by Talkers magazine -- which gave Air America's Al Franken its Freedom of Speech award -- suggests that left-wing hosts are gaining a foothold in a conservative-dominated field. Eight months after launching a show in a handful of towns such as Columbus and Anchorage, the former standup comic is on in 30 cities, including such major markets as Boston, Washington (on WRC-AM), and Los Angeles, where she manages to be funny at 6 a.m.


How did their presence at the convention suggest anything, other than their presence? What did Franken do to deserve a freedom of speech award? When did he stand up for free expression?

Why doesn't Kurtz mention that 30 cities, after a year on the air, is small potatoes for talk radio? Or that the two liberal Boston stations are generating no ratings?


Air America, which was nearly grounded by financial woes after its takeoff last year, is on in 61 cities, although registering scant ratings in some of them. And radio giant Clear Channel is flipping some of its stations to liberal talk.

As recently as 2000, Miller hosted a popular show on L.A.'s KABC but had trouble getting syndicated, and then, she says, "I was fired for being too liberal." (She also says the station didn't like the "racy content" of her show, where she sometimes referred to male callers as "love puppet" and "stud monkey.") There was, she concluded, no place for liberals in a talk radio world dominated by Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity.


Since when is anyone in talk radio fired for being liberal? Besides the racy content issue, what were the real reasons?

At least Kurtz mentions "scant ratings", but I'm afraid it's just to get us to let our guards down about what's to come.


Miller isn't delicate when it comes to language. She told listeners last week that the argument by Hannity and Bill O'Reilly that "we're the only ones who support the troops" is "making me projectile-vomit." She gloats that "the Republicans have their panties in a twist" over this or that issue. She challenges the veracity of some conservatives with a jingle called "lying sack of crap."


Gee, Howard, could you challenge her on why she can't seem to inject a bit more intellect into her arguments? Vomit, crap, panties? That's primary school-level rhetoric.


Hannity, who once gave her a well-publicized hug, says he's never heard her show. "I've never seen any medium get more attention than liberal talk radio with absolutely no benefit," he says. "There's been more written about liberal talk radio than I've had in my entire career, and I began in 1987."


Again, we get tricked into thinking we're reading a fair piece, with Hannity's spot-on statement.


Much of that attention has been lavished on Air America, which says it is running ahead of projections, with an average of 222,000 people listening at any one time (compared to the roughly 4.4 million that Limbaugh averages at any one time on 600 stations). Franken, who spent part of his acceptance speech ripping O'Reilly, says the industry is no longer laughing at liberal radio. Hannity's liberal co-host, Alan Colmes (who joked at the conference that there are some liberals at Fox -- on the janitorial staff) is now heard on 70 stations.


From where are they getting this 222,000 quarter-hour estimate? It's hard to fathom a number that high, considering the ratings we've seen.

As for Colmes, many of his stations are otherwise-conservative outlets, who run him as part of a FOX News branding image.


Miller's emergence as a wisecracking liberal crusader carries a touch of irony, since her father was the late Buffalo-area congressman William Miller, Barry Goldwater's running mate in his landslide loss in 1964. Stephanie, who was 3 at the time, says her dad wouldn't recognize today's more conservative GOP, but sometime after voting for Ronald Reagan, she rejected the "extra-crispy bucket of Republican upbringing" served by her parents.


Miller overplays this tired tale in every media interview. Give it a rest, Steph.


But only since Jones Radio began distributing Miller's program last fall has she seemed to catch fire. With bits and impressions from her "voice guy" Jim Ward, Miller ridicules the administration -- from "Baghdad Bush" to John Bolton's mustache -- with undisguised glee. Miller generally has no guests, though the likes of Howard Dean and Barbara Boxer have made brief appearances.


How has she caught fire? With 30 tiny stations? Kurtz has a chance to back this up with ratings performance, or other industry yardsticks, but doesn't. It just dangles there, unverified.

Until we see more honesty in this type of reporting, the mission continues. Thanks for your participation in this effort, we have much more work ahead, I'm afraid.